Putting Something Together
by Fidelian
Summary: sequel to Understanding and Disturbed Love Lavender sees Ron and Hermione coming down the boys' staircase. Will they finally get to be together? RHr, One shot.


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_Putting Something Together_

(sequel to _Understanding_ and _Disturbed Love_)

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"What were you doing up there with _her_?"

Merlin. Ron was going to get it now

"Er, Lavender… I… I don't -"

"Harry was up there with us," Hermione exclaimed, cutting into Ron's rambling.

Lavender looked positively furious. "Oh, I'm _sure _he was! And I assume you invited _Professor Snape _to attend you little meeting as well?"

Hermione went silent, staring down at the floor and biting her bottom lip. She couldn't help but feel both bad for Ron's sake, and exhilarated at the fact that maybe he would finally get rid of Lavender Brown.

"Lavender, you're acting silly," said Ron. "We didn't do anything up there, I swear."

What? He was explaining himself to her? Hermione turned to look up at him discreetly and saw that his ears were a bright red and that his eyebrow twitched slightly.

Oh. He was trying to save her from a reputation as a scarlet woman.

"But you _love_ her," yelled Lavender, stomping her foot down as she exclaimed the word 'love'.

Ron went silent and kept his eyes off of Hermione.

"That's beside the point," he said helplessly.

"Then why did you play with me? Was I just an experiment to you? Did you want to find out how to fit in as many snogs as possible in a regular school day?" She sounded as if she was close to tears now.

Suddenly feeling as though she was intruding on a very private conversation, Hermione turned to sit down on the couch furthest away from the quarrelling couple.

She had just sat down and begun to try to keep Lavender and Ron's voices out of her brain when she realized that there was two more low voices. Looking around, she saw Ginny and Dean standing by the closed portrait hole, speaking in low and urgent tones. After a minute, Ginny gave a strangled cry of "It's over!" and walked away from Dean, angry tears running down her cheeks as she climbed the stairs that led to their dormitory. Dean just stood there for a moment, staring at the wall. Then he turned without a word and went up to his own dorm.

Feeling bad for Ginny, she turned to see Lavender clutching Ron's robes, tears running down her face.

"Please, Ron," she was saying, tugging helplessly on his collar. "Please try to forget her."

Ron turned to glance at where Hermione was sitting and she snapped her head away, looking out the window. She couldn't hear his answer but understood what it must have been when Lavender suddenly shouted.

"Then it's over! I am not going to wait around for you to realize that I'm the best thing that ever happened to you!"

She looked from Ron to Hermione and said, in a voice full of hurt and venom, "I hope you'll be very happy together." Then she, too, turned to head up to the girls' dorm, sniffling loudly.

The common room went very silent after Lavender had left. Hermione looked down at her hands that were lying on her lap. She didn't dare a look at Ron, not wanting to see if he was glad that they could finally begin their future, or if he was unhappy that Lavender had let him go.

"Well," he said after a while with a little sigh. "That was… interesting."

Hermione just nodded. It sure had been. Her head was swimming with jumbled thoughts. Would he want to start something with Hermione now? Right now? Or would he maybe want some time to melt the whole Lavender thing? What if he did, and he forgot about Hermione in the process? Her insides were now squirming uncomfortably and she realized that she was wringing her hands together fiercely.

"Er," she mumbled, desperately trying to think of something to say to him. "I guess I should probably leave you alone for a while then."

"Oh," said Ron, blinking at her. "Er, why?"

Hermione finally dared a look at him and was caught in his eyes in under a second. "I don't know… You were just dumped by your girlfriend, for one thing."

"Yeah, I suppose I was," said Ron wonderingly. "It was easier than I thought, too."

She chuckled, and quickly covered her mouth with a hand. "That's a horrible thing to say. Lavender's heart broken."

"Yeah," he responded, slowly sitting down next to her on the sofa. "But I'm not anymore."

Smiling shyly, Hermione looked down at her hands again. "That's good," she mumbled.

Then they watched the fire that was roaring in the fire place in silence.

"How do you reckon Harry's doing?" said Hermione suddenly, only just remembering why Lavender thought they had been up in the dorm alone.

"What do you mean?" he asked wonderingly, and then, "Bloody hell! I had forgotten about him and the Felix!"

Hermione laughed. "This Lavender thing is really messing with your mind, isn't it?"

"No, that's not it," Ron muttered at the fire. Hermione smiled, but didn't respond.

Then it was silent again. Neither seemed to know what to do with themselves.

"I wish I had never gone out with Lavender," Ron said, as if it was an afterthought.

Hermione turned to look at him. "Why?"

"Because I completely destroyed any chance of having what I really had wanted for a very long time," he blurted out. Then he groaned and covered his face with his large hands.

Hermione's heart skipped a number of beats and she felt slightly faint. So it was finally happening. She and Ron. It _would_ happen.

"I wish that, too," she suddenly said, without knowing why. "I really thought we were finally getting somewhere when I asked you to Slughorn's party, and then you stood there, in the middle of this common room, looking like you were trying to suck her face off - which would only serve her right - and you really hurt me, and then I sent those canaries after you when she giggled and you held her hand, and because that really broke my heart." She drew an enormous breath and desperately tried to recall what she had just said.

Ron was staring at her with a look in his eyes that she had seen before, but never had been able to decipher.

Then he leaned forward and gently touched his lips against hers.

She looked at him with wide eyes when he pulled back after a second, staring into her eyes and breathing in shallow breaths. Groaning slightly, Hermione tugged at the front of his robes and, grinning widely, he instantly bent forward and claimed her lips once again.

It was everything she had ever hoped for and then a bit more. They were rather sloppy and eager, but it was still the most amazing thing she had ever felt in her mere sixteen years of life. Then her thoughts evaporated and there was only Ron.

Almost twenty minutes later, she could feel Ron pull away from her slightly.

"No, don't stop," she whined reflexively, instantly feeling embarrassed.

Ron gave a throaty laugh. "But yes," he said, running his fingers over her frizzy locks.

"Why?" she pouted, pushing her bottom lip forward in a petulant way and letting her fingers play with the soft hair at the nape of his neck.

"You can't do that to me," Ron groaned, and not a second later his mouth were on hers again.

All too soon, they were gone.

"We _really_ have to stop," Ron gasped, sitting up.

Hermione suddenly realized that she was on her back on the sofa, her wild hair splayed over the armrest, tangled and positively impossible.

She, too, sat up and corrected her clothes, clearing her throat. Ron kept quiet as well.

Then they looked at each other and chuckled. Ron leaned forwards and kissed her quickly on the mouth.

"I can't believe I waited so bloody long to do that," he said, pressing his forehead against hers.

Hermione could feel his breath on her face, and mumbled, "Don't swear," not really meaning it because he had used it in such a beautiful sentence.

She gave her watch a quick look. "It's getting late."

Ron sighed and pulled away from her. "Yeah. We should probably get to bed."

They stood up, smiling at each other. Ron slowly took hold of her hand and entwined their fingers. When they reached the stairs that led up to the girls' dormitories, Hermione jumped up on the second step, making her as tall as Ron. He bumped his nose against hers playfully. Hermione laughed.

"G'night," he said in a low voice.

"Good night," Hermione sighed.

She didn't want to go to bed, not yet, but suddenly she realized that this would happen tomorrow too. This wasn't just tonight, it could very well be forever.

So she kissed him on the cheek and walked up the stairs, pausing at the top to look down at him again. He was standing there, leaning against the wall and smiling at her.

Then she ran into her room, holding in a most un-Hermione like squeal.

_Author's Note: Finally, _finally_, Ron and Hermione get it together. I will have the next one up as soon as possible. Did you like this one?_


End file.
